'Hasty Pudding' - The Hawker Monoplane into RAF Squadron ServiceSeen as 'rushed jobs', the light bomber conversions were dubbed Hawker '
Hasty' by RAF wags. And the conversions had been made a high priority as events on the Continent made clearer how unprepared for war the RAF really was.
At the beginning of 1936, No.18 Squadron was stationed at RAF Bircham Newton in Norfolk on Hawker
Harts. In February, 'C' flight of No.18 was split off to make up the basis of a reformed No.49 Squadron RAF. No.49 would become the first RAF squadron to receive
Harbinger Mk.I light day bombers. Two of No.49's aircraft were
Harbinger Mk.I DC (Dual Control) two-seat trainers. This helped ready the reformed squadron's personnel but it was also intended that No.49 should act as an informal OTU for the new monoplane
Harbinger. That didn't work out quite as planned.
On 07 March 1936, the German Wehrmacht marched into the Rhineland - remilitarising this border region in contravention of Versailles and Locarno. Neither Britain nor France was inclined to a direct military response. A week after the entry by German troops, Hitler made a rather bellicose speech in Munich regarding the Rhineland. That helped to lessen official British resistance to fulfilling its "continental commitment". British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden stuck to his government's policy of appeasement but saw no great harm in "general purpose" RAF units making 'good-will visits' to French airfields. The first such tour would be flown by new
Harbingers of No.49 Squadron RAF. [1]
The deployed No.49 aircraft visited a number of Armée de l'Air bases over a period of a week before arriving at a disused French military airfield 160 miles east of Paris. The Aérodrome Toul-Croix de Metz - which would become known to the RAF as Gengault Airfield - was only 30 miles flying distance from the German border. For a small deployment, the choice of basing made a clear statement. After settling in, No.49 began flying familiarisation flights with local members of the Aero-club Toulois as well as visiting Armée de l'Air personnel. As was explained to the French press, these flights were flown along the Franco-German boundary simply because the border demarkations simplied navigation
Top Hawker
Harbinger Mk.I day bomber of No.49 Squadron RAF at Gengault Airfield, Moselle
département, May 1936. Like all
Harbingers, this aircraft wears the new RAF Temperature Camouflage scheme. However, while deployed in France,
Harbingers adopted red-white-blue rudder stripes in the French fashion.
Note that no Squadron badges or other unit identifiers were worn. [2] Other than national markings, only individual aircraft letters were applied (in Medium Sea Grey). No.49 Squadron established the practice of painting a smaller version of the individual aircraft letter on cowlings as well. On the night of 12/13 September 1936, this aircraft overflew Homburg on a leafletting mission accompanying CO, Sqn Ldr H. Peake. [3]
In late October 1936, No.49 Squadron returned home to RAF Bircham Newton, having been relieved at Gengault by a new, 'full-time' detachment of No.609 (West Riding) Squadron, Royal Auxiliary Air Force. [4]
Hinds to Harbingers - The Harbinger Mk.IIsAs noted,
Harbingers differed depending upon their 'donor' airframe and the equipment fitted - all
Harbinger Mk.Is being
Hart conversions. The wireless-equipped
Harbinger Mk.Ic was not issued to operational squadrons but the more-powerful,
Hind-based
Harbinger Mk.IIa was essentially similar. The
Harbinger Mk.IIb varied only in having some armour plating attached to its belly - low-level attack being the key planned role for the 'IIb. No
Harbinger Mk.IIc was built - all being field conversions with two bomb racks removed along with other weight-reducing measures.
The
Harbinger Mk.II first saw overseas service with No.83 Squadron RAF in the Spring of 1937. This unit shared a field - the Aérodrome de Thionville-Yutz in Moselle - with a detachment from the 2
e escadrille du GC I/4 on Dewoitine D.501 fighters. [5] Like Gengault, 'ThionYutz' was very close to the German boundary - less than 8 flying miles from the border at its closest. Most missions were 'flag showing' flights along the Franco-German border. But, like No.49 at Gengault, No.83 Squadron was also assigned leaflet-dropping missions on occasion.
The drill for leaflet-dropping was gaining as much altitude as possible while still over French territory. Then, from an altitude close to 25,000 feet, the RAF formation would enter a gentle dive. The German frontier would be crossed at speeds of 230 mph or more - higher than the maximum speed of the Luftwaffe's latest Arado Ar 68 fighters. This shallow dive would be continued over the leafletting target and on until recrossing the border back into French airspace. To 'raid' Saarbrücken, this involved a direct flight line of only 85 miles round trip (although that does not include the circling required to initially gain altitude).
Bottom Hawker
Harbinger Mk.IIb day bomber, No.83 Squadron RAF, Thionville-Yutz, France, August 1937 (inset, RAF rank pennant of pilot, S/L Leonard Snaith). Note that the RAF Type B fuselage roundel has been overpainted to simulate a Type A - to better match contemporary French practice. As Commanding Officer, Snaith's aircraft did not carry an individual aircraft identifying letter on its rear fuselage (although, for convenience, erks had applied a small 'A' identifier to the cowling).
No.83 Squadron was the last RAF unit to drop leaflets over the Tird Reich in peacetime. By late Spring of 1938, the Luftwaffe had begun to detail Messerschmitt Bf 109B monoplane fighters to
Feldflugplatz Saarbrücken-Sankt Arnual to attempt interceptions of RAF overflights. Although high-altitude approaches narrowed the speed difference between these new Luftwaffe fighters and Hawker
Harbingers, the British government was not willing to risk RAF aircraft being shot down over the Third Reich. On 01 May 1938, all RAF overflights of German territory ceased until the declaration of war.
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[1] Eden was interpreted as having prohibited the deployment of heavier bombers to France in 'peacetime'. The
Harbinger was seen as a relatively non-threatening aircraft while not presenting as an out-dated type.
Around the time of the No.49 deployment, a flight of Armée de l'Air fighters were detailed to visit Norfolk. Six Dewoitine D.501s of 42
e escadre mixte (normally based at Reims) of GCI/3 de Châteauroux toured southern England from RAF Bircham Newton for three weeks in May 1936.
[2] As can be seen here, at this early stage, anonymity included aircraft serials. This
Harbinger Mk.I retained its original
Hart serial of K4907 but this number would not be applied until No.49 Squadron had returned to Norfolk.
[3] On that 12/13 September leaflet mission, No.49 Squadron's commanding officer, Sqn Ldr H. Peake, also dropped a somewhat battered Homburg hat. It was only realized later that the 'donated' headgear had actually been named for Bad Homburg - a spa town in Hesse, 160 km to the northeast of the Saarland's Homburg.
[4] The 'parent' unit of this detachment, No.609 (West Riding) Squadron, Royal Auxiliary Air Force squadron remained at RAF Yeadon. These Yorkshire-based elements operated a mixture of
Harbinger Mk.Is and
Hind biplanes.
[5] This French unit had roots at the Aérodrome de Thionville-Yutz. Prior to leaving for Reims, 2e GC I/4 had been designated SPA 153 which had been based at Thionville until September 1933.